IN BRIEF / CANADA

Federal Police Chief Apologizes to Deportee

The head of Canada's federal police force offered an unprecedented public apology to a man who was deported by U.S. agents to Syria after the Mounties mistakenly labeled him an Islamic extremist.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli admitted that his force had mishandled the case of Maher Arar, whom he described as an innocent man swept up in a search for terrorism suspects in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Arar, a 36-year-old Ottawa software engineer, says he was repeatedly tortured during the year he spent in Syrian jails.